How to Avoid Chasing Away Your Best Hands Through Over Strict Employee Policies

Many organisations certainly have employee policies that seek to guide the behaviour of the staff and establish basic ground rules for the daily interaction and work that is expected of team members. While this is mostly good owners and managers ought to know also that most probably it will be the most talented team members that may end up breaking these rules.

While creating and implementing an organisation wide employee policy or rule may be effective here are things to note to ensure you do not lose your best people as a result of these policies

The Fewer The Better:

Today’s workplaces are always evolving and the dynamics of what obtains in the workplace keep changing. While some big corporations have rules and policies spanning pages upon pages for your 21st century business it is better you keep your rules simple and few.

Some companies have what could pass as the 10 commandments (usually a list of workplace rules not exceeding ten in number) taped on the notice boards in the work rooms. These short and straightforward rules make it easier for your employees to remember and reduces the risk that they will break any of them

Your Rules Should Leave Room for Flexibility

When rules are followed so strictly they may be good for most situations but in a few will make totally no sense. Check for example a certain company that had a policy that required workers to check out for 30 minutes after working exactly four hours. The policy was so strict that management required store managers to reprimand anyone who spend even a minute more than the four hours stipulated. In a certain case a very good employee was reprimanded and subsequently sacked for helping a customer which meant he had to stay beyond the stated time to ensure the customer left happy.

The key is to understand that rules are made for people and not the other way round. Allow for perfectly reasonable variations and scenarios in the policies that your organisation will be making for staff members.

Dressing Codes?

Dressing codes at workplaces are not so easy to define. A certain employee we spoke to said his organisation’s dress codes keep changing. Initially it stipulated that for women the skirt should be not be more than a reasonable short distance above the knee and when the ‘reasonable distance’ become hard to define the rule changed to not more than an inch above the knee.

The key is to strike a balance between freedom, comfortability and decency. This is more tricky when it comes to female dress codes. For the men formal troussers, shirts, t-shirts or suits (with maybe traditionals allowed on fridays) will do.

Make It Fun

If you can make work fun for your people they will definitely put in their best work. Company rules should have an element of fun in them. The simplicity adds to the fun.